It's hard to think of a good band name. Just ask Thee More Shallows about the clunker they ended up with.

Yet while the San Francisco quartet's name, song titles and lyrics are less-than-inspired, their music is strikingly poignant and original. The band's latest release, More Deep Cuts, hits you with a quiet ferocity that's perfect for a rainy fall day.

Thee More Shallows leans heavily on samples, ambient noise and string arrangements to create a sound that's simple but beautiful. Songwriter Dee Kesler bases songs like "Freshman Thesis" and "Ave Grave" off circular, haunting melodies. Other songs rely on the hypnotic allure of Chavo Fraser and Jason Gonzales's live and electronic beats. Guitarist Odessa Chen makes "Walk of Shame" and "Cloisterphobia" worthwhile with straightforward but undiluted guitar parts.

It's a laidback but powerful approach that lets Thee More Shallows bowl you over without breaking a sweat. Although the vibe feels electronica-influenced, it's not as digital as Postal Service or Morcheeba.

Kesler's melodies occasionally rival those of Postal Service's Ben Gibbard in terms of catchiness, but for the most part Kesler is more unpredictable. Thee More Shallows isn't afraid of a little dissonance now and then. The band flirts with odd, Radiohead-esque melodies on several songs, especially the deliberately unpolished interlude songs.

They're not afraid to take their time, either. More Deep Cuts is one of those albums that require listener patience, which is a lost art amongst the Weezer/The Killers/Gavin DeGraw crowd. Kesler and friends, besides being relatively low-energy, don't care much about verse/refrain song structure. You're going to need to listen to this album more than once if you want to enjoy it.

Also to their credit, the band uses more than your standard rock instruments. Various kinds of bells and chimes fill out the sound and even play a key role in songs like the deliciously delirious "2 A.M." The chimes contrast perfectly with the droning guitar on this cut, which sounds like a WWII bomber buzzing the Carillon.

Thee More Shallows knows how to use a string section as well. Instead of just relegating the orchestra instruments to a background role, the band incorporates them into the framework of the song. "Freshman Thesis" starts off with a violin part that could have been lifted from "Fiddler on the Roof." "Walk of Shame" ends with a string section liftoff reminiscent of a Sea Change-era Beck.

Kesler's indie-slacker voice cuts through the mixture with a lilting quality that sometimes sounds similar to Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes. The vocals are deliberately low-key, but sometimes you can't help but wish Kesler would just belt it out for once.

At other times, the lyrics make you wish he would just shut up. On the whole, his verses are average to good, but some songs just lack lyrical meaning.

"Before I spoke in riddles; I was worried someone would hear me / Now I know that no one really listens so I will just speak clearly," Kesler sings on "Freshman Thesis," and he seems to hope that the audience won't actually listen to the words.

As the title suggests, the song is about the writing process, using mundane phrases like "lyrical worksheet" to try to evoke meaning. Unfortunately, the relatively unimportant nature of the lyrics doesn't gel with the emotional, piano-driven groove.

But the other half of the time, Kesler does get it right. "And then the sun comes up / On the field of tires," he sings on "Ask Me About Jon Stross," just before the guitar kicks in and the song rises to a whole new level. The lyrics in this elegy fit the music perfectly.

More Deep Cuts would be melodramatic if not for passages like this, where the band, the extra instruments and the lyrics come together harmoniously to deliver an emotional punch. Slightly-depressed indie rock/pop doesn't get much better than the soaring female vocal solo in "Ave Grave."

So what if Thee More Shallows needs to come up with better song titles than "Pre-Present" and "Cold Dis"? Their haunting music makes up for any lyrical shortcomings. And as for the name Thee More Shallows, I guess I could get used to it.

The moral of the story: Don't judge a book by its cover or a band by its name.

Grade : B